Holocene paleoenvironmental reconstructions in western Brittany (Bay of Brest)
Part II – A 7 kyr human-environment story with a focus on the Neolithic-Bronze Age transition
Bibliographic Data
The Bay of Brest (BB, NW France) is a semi-enclosed basin of 180 km2 subject to macro-tidal dynamics and to the fluvial influences of the rivers Aulne and Elorn, which combined drain watersheds of 2600 km2. This coastal environment is subject to natural climate oscillations overlaid on the long-term landscape transformations inherited from the post-glacial sea level rise and increasing anthropogenic forcing since the Neolithic (6.9 ka BP), and especially from the Bronze Age (4.2 ka BP) onwards. The BB therefore appears suitable for the reconstruction of the interactions between climate, environment and human dynamics across the Holocene. In this study, a palynological stack was created based on five cores (including two new cores PALM-KS05 and PALM-KS06 from the Brest harbour), allowing us to discuss vegetation dynamics over the last 7 kyrs. Since the Neolithic period, the forest cover has decreased in favour of open and agro-pastoral landscapes. This trend is not uniform, however: forest cover first declined slowly around 4 ka BP, then strongly decreased at the end of the Iron Age, before experiencing a revival of about five centuries at the end of the Roman period (1.7–1.2 ka BP). Finally, a drastic fall of tree pollen taxa is recorded at the start of the Middle Ages. This study is the first on long-term Holocene trends that allows discussion of both climatic and anthropogenic forcing at an unprecedent average study resolution of 35 years. We also place this local evolution in a wider context to detail interactions between natural and anthropic forcings over the last 7 kyrs BP at a regional-scale and we discuss paleoenvironments and human dynamics thanks to the incorporation of an up-to-date corpus of archaeological data
Archaeology · Bay · Bronze Age · Fluvial · Geography · Holocene · Holocene climatic optimum · Palynology · Physical geography · Pollen · Sea level · Shore · Structural basin · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology · Ecology · Geology · Oceanography · Paleontology
A Pervasive Millennial-Scale Cycle in North Atlantic Holocene and Glacial Climates
Persistent Solar Influence on North Atlantic Climate During the Holocene
Variability of the North Atlantic Oscillation over the past 5,200 years
Insolation values for the climate of the last 10 million years
Holocene palaeoclimates from peat stratigraphy
Cooling and societal change during the Late Antique Little Ice Age from 536 to around 660 AD
Holocene climate variability
A Reconstruction of Regional and Global Temperature for the Past 11,300 Years
Towards a rigorous understanding of societal responses to climate change
Decadal Trends in the North Atlantic Oscillation
Years of European Climate Variability and Human Susceptibility
Flexible paleoclimate age-depth models using an autoregressive gamma process
Prehistoric Communities of the British Isles
Éléments pour une nouvelle approche de l’âge du Bronze en Bretagne
Palaeoenvironmental reconstructions during the Meso- to Neolithic transition (9.2–5.3 cal. ka BP) in Northwestern France
Modern morpho-sedimentological patterns in a tide-dominated estuary system
Middle Bronze Age humidity and temperature variations, and societal changes in East-Central Europe
Living with sand
Holocene climate variability as reflected by mid-European lake-level fluctuations and its probable impact on prehistoric human settlements
Long-term and millennial-scale climate variability in northwestern France during the last 8850 years
Coastal palaeoenvironmental record of the last 7 kyr BP in NW France
Land use, settlement, and plant diversity in Iron Age Northwest France
Middle- to late-Holocene storminess in Brittany (NW France)
Correlation between spatial distributions of pollen data, archaeological records and physical parameters from north-western France
Evolution of vegetation landscapes during the Holocene in the central and downstream Loire basin (Western France)
Neolithic farming in north-western Europe
The Environmental Fall of the Roman Empire
Carrément à l'Ouest ! Indices du Villeneuve-Saint-Germain au centre de la Bretagne (le Dillien à Cléguérec et Bellevue à Neulliac ; Morbihan)
Les vestiges d’habitat du Néolithique ancien de Quimper, Kervouyec (Finistère)
Beg-an-Dorchenn (Plomeur, Finistère)
The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0–55 cal kBP)
Les reliques de Lothéa (Quimperlé, Finistère)
Holocene paleoenvironmental reconstructions in western Brittany Bay of Brest
Did Neolithic farming fail? The case for a Bronze Age agricultural revolution in the British Isles
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |